A Nights Tale
by justabeautifullittlefool
Summary: Percy Jackson always believed that one night could change everything.….except when it comes to Annabeth Chase, then it actually takes six. College AU
1. The Night of Cheap Frozen Eggrolls

The Night of Cheap Frozen Eggrolls and Scantily Clad Mermaids:

Percy was told multiple times by multiple guys who swore they were his "bros" that the manner in which he showered was seriously unorthodox and quite honestly very feminine.

First and foremost he had a loofa. It took him literally forty five minutes to explain its function to his roommates. "Perce, I'm not comfortable with using the word 'loofa'," Jason had said "It's a sponge on a stick don't make it more than it is." Second, His showers usually averaged about twenty minutes. "Dude" showers should be quick and efficient. Leo swears that Percy is actually taking bubble baths every night. The sad part about that is Percy loved being in the water so much he probably would take bubble baths every night, if his roommates wouldn't refuse to speak to him (and if their tub was actually sanitary). Third, Percy found that singing in the shower was a habit he simply couldn't break. It wasn't the singing that was the issue…it was the songs. His roommates and teammates would have been perfectly accepting of obnoxious attempts at "Carry on Wayward Son" or even something modern and offensive like "Blurred Lines", but Percy's choices were unwavering. In the shower, he was essentially the personification of the Miley Cyrus Pandora station.

Percy didn't see anything wrong with belting out "Party in the USA" into his loofa for a half hour or so, if he got clean then the shower was a success and the rest didn't really matter. Unfortunately his roommates spent a lot of time and energy mocking him, so for the sake of his reputation as a dude, Percy refrained from rocking out when they were home. Thankfully that night they were all on some camp out with an off campus frat. Percy had decided to sit it out. He had swim practices he couldn't miss, a lacrosse meeting, a paper due for his Greek Mythology class, and he really had no interest spending time at a booze fueled sausage fest with a bunch of over-privileged toolboxes. He knew Jason and Leo were just going for the free beer, but Percy hadn't drank since high school. He was much better off staying home and enjoying a rare night of peace and privacy.

"_Cause I've been waiting all day. For you to call me baby, So let's get up, let's get on it, don't you leave me broken hearted tonight."_

While he took a rather dramatic deep breathe (so he would be able to hit those shamelessly feminine high notes) he heard his phone ring. The only people who ever called (rather than texted) Percy's phone were his mother, his buddy Grover who was studying abroad, and occasionally one of his friends when they needed a designated driver. Grudgingly Percy stepped out of the shower, grabbed the nearest towel, and answered just before it went to voicemail.

"Hello?"

"Jackson? It's Michael from next door. Listen dude someone's been banging your door down for almost twenty minutes."

"Shit, really?"

"Yeah…I guess you couldn't hear it…because of all the singing."

Percy sighed as he heard the unmistakable sounds of his manhood being called into question. "Thanks, I'll take care of it."

He ended the call and turned the shower off, rushing into his room to change and listening for the sounds of knocking. The apartment was silent. He tried not to worry. Odds are if it were the police they would have knocked the door down. He grabbed a pair of shorts and a Yankees shirt that was too old and faded to wear in public and rushed over to the door.

When he opened it he saw nothing but the "15" on the door across the hall. Upon closer inspection, about three feet under the numbers and a few inches to the right was a girl. She was hunched over with her head in her hands. Her blonde hair was thrown up in something that looked like it may have once been a bun and she seemed to be sitting on a bright orange gym bag.

"Annabeth?"

She looked up with wide eyes, as if Percy was the last person she wanted to see, and maybe he was.

She groaned "I'm sorry Percy, I totally forgot about the retreat and I'm out here banging on your door like an idiot."

"It's alright." He said "I didn't go. I was just in the shower that's why I didn't hear you."

She sighed and stood up "I shouldn't have_"

"Annabeth, what's wrong?" he could see now that she had clearly been crying.

She waved him off "It's stupid," she said "I didn't have anywhere else to go, but I_"

"Why don't you come in?"

"No, No Percy it's okay. It was stupid of me to come here."

"Come on Annabeth," he said "there used to be a time when I was the first person you came to in a time of need."

She wiped at her face and shook her head. "I'm fine really."

"No, I think it's pretty obvious that this is a time of need. Just get in here."

She made the walk through the doorway as awkward as possible. She took one step at a time, glancing up at him as if he would suddenly change his mind. Percy found the whole thing very depressing. Annabeth was actually one of his oldest friends. They had met at summer camp when they were 9, and by their second summer they were inseparable. Unfortunately they attended different High Schools which gave them plenty of time to grow up and grow apart. They had barely spoken their last summer at camp. Percy always had a sneaking suspicion that it was because he had gotten himself a girlfriend. He remembered telling Annabeth about Rachel, her face had bunched up awkwardly, then turned red, and then lost all expression. She had avoided him after that. Imagine his surprise when his cousin Thalia ran into Annabeth their freshman year. She spent the better part of their college experience avoiding everything and everyone associated with him like the plague. Last year she had finally attended a party at their apartment. They had their first conversation in four years and vowed that they would try to rekindle their former friendship. Of course to Annabeth that only meant saying hi when she passed him on campus and occasionally joining his group of friends on the weekends. Despite this, he had always and would always care about Annabeth. She was one of the smartest people he had ever known. Her mind was a steel trap. He found it very unlikely that she had forgotten about the retreat that his roommates had been obsessing about for weeks. In fact the phrase " booze fueled sausage fest with a bunch of over-privileged toolboxes" came directly from Annabeth when he told her last weekend that he wasn't sure if he wanted to go. Something was wrong, and whether she would admit it or not, she had sought him out. If this was a chance to return their friendship to the way it was meant to be, he was going to take it.

Once was actually in the apartment and Percy was able to shut the door behind her, she walked over to the nearest chair at their tiny table and threw herself into it. She seemed to be wearing workout clothes, although he expected that for whatever reason she hadn't actually made it to the gym.

"Are you hungry?" he asked "I was just about to make dinner."

"I'm alright."

"Are you sure? I have eggrolls. Well…I mean the box says eggrolls. They're frozen so they'll probably taste like cardboard and old cabbage but I do have a giant bottle of hot sauce to take the edge off."

"I'm okay Percy really."

"I'm going to ignore you and make the whole box anyway, that way if you refuse to eat some it'll be rude."

She looked up and met his grin with a slight smile. "I'll have one if you've got mustard."

"Actually you'll have six, but we'll negotiate numbers when the time comes. Need something to drink? We've got Caprisuns, some milk that I think is still good, Mountain Dew that is probably –no definitely flat- and of course water."

"Already got some." She held up a water bottle.

"How was the work out?" he asked as he placed mustard and a plate on the table in front of her.

She shifted uncomfortably "Never actually made it to the gym."

He chose to wait until the eggrolls were in the oven and a smiley face timer he had picked up at the dollar store was set to ten minutes before pressing her for more information.

"What happened?"

"Percy really we don't have to_"

"I wouldn't ask you if I didn't care." He said , almost positive that he made her blush a bit, "I definitely wouldn't share eggrolls with you if I didn't care."

"Even shitty, low quality eggrolls?"

"Especially shitty, low quality eggrolls."

She laughed and then laid her head in her hands again "I fought with Thalia."

"Well you came to the right guy. I am _the shit_ at fighting with Thalia." He said with a grin.

"She's your family."

"So? That doesn't change the fact that she can be a bitch sometimes."

"It wasn't her, it was me." Annabeth said sadly "it was my fault."

"What did you fight about?"

She looked embarrassed. "Luke Castellon."

Percy grimaced. Luke Castellon was an RA in Annabeth and Thalia's dorm, had been for years actually. Percy was pretty sure he was twenty five years old, a three year senior at least, but his Dad was the Dean of Admissions so he went there for free. Everyone called him "Mr. Undeclared". He called himself "A jack of all trades". Basically Luke refused to graduate. He took random classes and kept his GPA just high enough to be impressive without allowing him to qualify for graduation. Perhaps he thought he was sticking it to his Dad. There was a time when Percy had actually gotten along with Luke. Then he screwed Thalia over and tried to get Percy thrown off the swimming team so somewhere along the line the kid had turned into quite the Dbag. The problem was that Thalia seemed to have a permanent soft spot for Luke. It was annoying and if Percy found out Annabeth felt the same way, there was a chance he would vomit.

"What about Luke Castellon?"

"Just that_ I mean_ well he asked me out."

Yup. He was going to vomit.

"Did you say yes?"

"Well as it turns out he didn't actually ask me out. I only thought that he did_"

"But did you say yes?"

"I said…maybe."

"Maybe?"

"Well I couldn't just say yes. I had to talk to Thalia."

"That didn't go very well I guess?"

"No," Annabeth's eyes were getting wet again "she locked me out of the room actually. She told me that Luke was a liar and that he was just using me. Then she accused me of being a shitty friend even though I purposefully didn't give him an answer because I wanted to talk to her first. She just assumed I agreed, she didn't even give me the chance to explain."

Percy rolled his eyes "Yeah, she's been known to do that."

"And that's not even the worst part. After we fought, I went to Luke's room to try to talk to him. He got this disgusting, condescending look on his face and said "Oh Annabeth, no it wasn't like that. I was just asking you as a friend.""

"Ouch."

"Yeah. So that was absolutely mortifying. He said it right in front of two of his friends too."

"He's such a fucking dick."

"And then I was afraid to go to Piper and Hazel's room because I don't know what Thalia told them and Reyna went home for the weekend. I was going to go to the gym, but I didn't want to walk in there crying and looking like an idiot so instead I came here…..crying and looking like an idiot." She laughed humorlessly and wiped at her eyes.

Percy felt the urge to hug her and punch Luke simultaneously. "Annabeth you are welcome to come here crying and looking like an idiot anytime you need to. You should know though that you're not really an idiot, Luke does shit like this all the time. He's an asshole."

"I don't want to fight with Thalia." She said "She's my best friend, but I can't go back there and tell her she was right. I know that makes me a terrible person but I'm really not good at being wrong."

"That's because you rarely ever are."

"I don't understand it, I mean she has sworn to me up and down that she was over Luke."

"She'll never be over Luke."

Annabeth looked at him like he was crazy "Percy, they were never even officially together."

"Doesn't matter, he was her first love you know?"

"No." she said as her face started to heat up again.

"Come on Annabeth everyone has a first love. It doesn't have to be someone you dated it's just….it's usually the person you think of when you hear a Taylor Swift song."

She raised her eyebrows at him and fought off a smile "Yeah, I had heard you were big into Taylor Swift."

"She has her own playlist on my ipod."

"Shut up." She laughed and then slunk back into her chair and sighed "What am I going to do?"

"Well first things first, you're going to promise me that you'll stop hanging around Luke. He's nothing but bullshit and you don't deserve that. Quite frankly if he makes one more person I care about cry I'm going to have to hit him…or beat him with my lacrosse stick…whichever comes first. If it's spontaneous I'll just bareknuckle it , but if I can plan…I'm using riptide."

"You seriously named your lacrosse stick_"

"The second thing we're going to do is let Thalia know you're okay. She may be a bitch , but she loves you so I'm going to text her and tell her you're staying here tonight."

"No Percy I_"

"Giving Thalia a night to sleep on it and feel guilty about overreacting is going to make admitting you were wrong a million times easier. Just crash here tonight it's not a big deal."

"But_"

"Last thing we're going to do is stop talking about anything that made you cry and look like an idiot and spend the remainder of this lovely Friday night with mediocre eggrolls and the movie of your choice."

"Percy_"

"I insist and since I was kind enough to offer you my hospitality, you'd better just shut up, eat the food, and pick a movie."

Annabeth opened her mouth to object again, but the timer went off and interrupted her. "I'll get those, you take the plates and your mustard into my room. Pick out a movie, they're on the shelf under my window."

"You guys don't have a DVD played out here?" she asked motioning to the living room "We did but Leo..well Leo started messing with it and now it just randomly starts blinking in the middle of the movie. It's annoying and pretty dangerous if you're epileptic. We'll just use the one in my room. Don't worry I'm not trying to seduce you. I'll even sit on the floor if you want."

She rolled her eyes "Stop it, you don't have to do that. I've known you for over ten years you're like a brother to me by now."

She stood up and started making her way down the hall to his room. He stared at her back, feeling as if somehow she had just insulted him.

By the time he got the eggrolls piled onto a plate and made his way into his room, Annabeth was sitting cross-legged on the floor staring at his small DVD collection with a frown. "These are all really masculine movies." She said.

He grinned "I'm a dude, dudes have masculine things."

"I'm not watching Die Hard or any of the Fast and Furious movies."

"How about Rocky?"

"No."

He rolled his eyes and laid the plate down on his bed "Fine! Look I have one girl movie. It's hidden. My mom gave it to me for Christmas because she said I loved it so much as a kid."

"What is it?"

"You have to promise me not to laugh, and not to breathe a word of this to anyone ever."

"Question: does this movie have songs?"

"Yes."

"If you sing along with them, then I will accept both of these premises and I will also buy you breakfast tomorrow."

He looked at her for a second and then smiled. "Deal." He shook her hand and then looked under his bed pulling out a shoebox filled with tissue paper. Under the tissue paper was a brand new copy of "The Little Mermaid".

"Percy, you are by far my favorite person on this planet right now." Annabeth said as she beamed at the DVD in his hand.

"So that means you'll eat your fair share of my terrible eggrolls?"

"Of course I will! Put it in! I haven't seen this movie in years."

He laughed and made his way over to the DVD player.

"I cannot believe that young Percy Jackson was into Disney Princesses."

"_A_ Disney princess, I was into ONE Disney princess and I'll have you know that of all of the Princesses Ariel is the most respectable."

"Really? How do you figure that?"

"Because she's a fucking mermaid. She can breathe underwater that is beyond awesome."

"I always thought they could have given her a bit more clothes."

"She doesn't need more clothes, she's part fish!"

Annabeth kept her promise and ate almost half of the eggrolls, which admittedly did taste like cardboard and old cabbage, and Percy kept his promise to sing along with all of the songs, even doing a bad impression of Sabastian's accent. When it ended Annabeth agreed to watch a movie about World War II that she had never seen before. Halfway through both she and Percy fell asleep. When Annabeth was startled awake by the sound of gunfire she saw that the movie had just ended. The room was dark. She had found her way under his blankets and was very comfortable with his arm around her waist. She was far too tired to realize how awkward it should have been.

"Percy," she whispered "movie is over."

With a grunt he stretched the arm that wasn't around Annabeth to reach the remote, pressing a button and cloaking the room in complete darkness.

"Percy if you want to go to sleep I can_"

"Annabeth I had one of the busiest days of my life today. I'm incredibly comfortable if you move I will kill you."

"You want me to just sleep in here?" she asked in a quiet voice.

"Yup here."

Without another word, they both fell back into a comfortable sleep.

To be continued...


	2. The Night of Plastic Shot Glasses

The Night of Plastic Shot Glasses and a Sock on a Doorknob

The first Saturday of March was always what Percy liked to call the perfect storm. It was the end of swim season, so he had to compete against his fellow teammates to qualify for the events he wanted to compete in at the regional meet. It was also the beginning of lacrosse season. Coach Hedge had the entire team doing workouts in the gym so he could assess their progress. Percy, who was not exactly the most valuable player on the team, had never missed a meeting, practice , or game. He went straight from his swimming practice to the workouts and stayed until Coach Hedge was satisfied.

For her birthday this year Piper had decided to throw a huge party at her father's cabin upstate. She called it a cabin, put Percy was pretty sure it was more like a mansion. Unfortunately the cabin party fell on the first Saturday of March, but his friends would not accept his "Perfect Storm" day as an excuse.

"So you want me to wake up at 7 AM to warm up for qualifiers, go to the gym for lacrosse workouts until Hedge gets tired sometime around 6 or 7, and then get in my truck and drive three fucking hours to the middle of nowhere to watch you guys get drunk?"

Piper looked him dead in the eyes and smiled "Yes."

"No."

"It's my birthday Percy! We're all going_"

"I wouldn't even get there until 10 or 11_"

"So, it's not like we'll be in bed."

"Piper_"

"Oh come on, it's going to be fun. Besides Beckendorf said he'll drive up with you."

"It's not the drive I'm worried about. I'm going to be exhausted."

"If you come up I promise you one of the best bedrooms. Seriously you can have a single bedroom…the loft suite if you want it."

"Your cabin has suites?" Leo asked with a smirk.

"Why is it so important that I be there? I'll take you to dinner next week or something"

"Because," Piper sighed and leaned in closer to Percy "Annabeth doesn't know if she wants to go. She's not a big drinker and I don't think she's very comfortable with being the only sober one there, but you don't drink and you two have been hanging out so much lately."

"You want me to go for Annabeth?"

"I want you to go because you're my friend and it's my birthday."

Percy agreed, but received the same guilt trip from all of his friends over and over throughout the week. Part of him still planned to duck out at the last minute, but at lunch on Thursday when Annabeth asked him if he was definitely going she had this pleading look in her eyes so when he said "Yes" he truly meant it. He and Annabeth had started to grow closer since the night of the shitty eggrolls, but he knew there was something going on in her life that she wasn't telling him. There was an extra bit of worry in her eyes that had certainly never been there before. He thought maybe it was the pressure of applying to graduate school, but way she jumped every time her phone rang made him sure there was more to it. If Annabeth wanted him to go to Piper's party, if it took his being there for her to actually have a good time then he would do it.

So on Saturday morning he woke up at 7 AM and started warming up for Qualifiers. Five hours, two victories, and one pretty serious leg cramp later, Coach Hedge was greeting him as "cupcake" in the lacrosse locker room. Four energy drinks, 500 reps of various weights, and one extremely sore shoulder after that Coach decided that eight o'clock was late enough and Percy and Charlie Beckendorf found themselves dragging ass to Percy's truck to start the 3 hour drive upstate.

"This was the worst day of my life." Percy said "it seriously it hurts to grip the fucking steering wheel."

Beckendorf nodded and chugged a bottle of water "He gets worse every year. You're lucky though at least you had swimming to keep you in shape. I got my ass kicked today."

"I had qualifiers this morning, I've been getting my ass kicked since 7 am."

Beckendorf looked at him "You had a hell of a day huh?"

"Like I said, worst day of my life."

"You're still willing to drive all the way up there on the worst day of your life?"

Percy sighed "I guess so."

Beckendorf grinned at him "So what's the deal Jackson?"

"Deal with what?"

"I know why I'm going even though I feel like death, booze and Silena . You don't drink so there must be a girl."

"It's not like that."

"Annabeth Chase?"

Percy looked over at him and raised his eyebrows. Beckendorf laughed "Silena is nosey as fuck." He explained "and I've seen you two around. She's cute."

"It's really not like that. I've known Annabeth since we were kids. She's just been down recently and when she asked me if I was going…I couldn't say no."

"I get it."

"Plus Piper gave me a horrible guilt trip every time I saw her this week."

"How big do you think this cabin is?"

"She started talking about suites. It's probably a fucking mansion."

"It had better be, considering all the people she invited."

They kept the conversation interesting enough that the drive went by quickly. Percy was a bit nervous about finding the place, but it turned out that it was quite hard to miss. They drove through a giant stone entrance gate and saw what appeared to be a log cabin on steroids. It was definitely a mansion.

"Damn." Percy said as he pulled his truck behind Jason's jeep.

When they climbed out of the truck they could hear the distant sounds of a party. Apparently everyone was gathered in the back yard. Since Piper had promised him that he could relax that night, he had no intentions of carrying his bag up the drive way to the house. Instead, he laid on the horn until Jason came stumbling out the front door waving frantically.

"Holy shit its Percy Jackson!"

"Holy shit its 11:00 and you're already belligerent."

"Beckendorf!" Jason yelled as he came closer.

"What's up Grace."

"You've got no idea! The things I have seen tonight!" Jason leaned against the truck.

"What have you seen Jason?" Percy asked in an uninterested tone as he pulled Beckendorf's bag from the bed of the truck.

"Thals bought gummy worms right, so we put them in a bucket poured vodka in there. They taste crazy you know! It's like hey have some candy next thing you know WHABAM you're wasted."

"Sounds pretty sweet." Beckendorf said with a laugh.

"Chris Rodriguez made up a drink! He put Fireball in Dr. Pepper, called it a Dr. Fire!"

"Yeah man that's really something."

"It's been incredible Perce. I mean seriously I'm strapped up and ready for war here."

"I bet."

"Really though Leo brought supersoakers and filled them with Absolute, so if someone gets out of line BAM_" he started reaching around his midsection as if he expected the gun to be tied there, after about a minute he looked up at them and groaned "Shit, where'd it go."

"Well I was going to ask you to carry my shit, but you're obviously plastered." Percy said with a roll of his eyes "What time did you start drinking?"

Jason scrunched up his face "uh…on the drive up here I think."

"Day drinking?" Percy questioned "Classy."

"Piper saved you the biggest room, since you were whining like a little girl all week."

"How sweet."

"Come on I'll show you and Charlie I'll show you were Silena is staying" he turned around to wink at them but only managed to trip over his own feet and spill his beer.

The house was nearly empty when they walked through, apparently Piper thought it was wisest to keep everyone limited to the outside areas. Beckendorf dropped his bag off in a room on the second floor and then went to find Silena . Percy followed his stumbling cousin up to the third floor and dropped his stuff in what Jason called the "mega room". It was bigger than any bedroom he had ever seen. It had its own bath, a king sized bed, and even though there was an incredible view of the yard through a giant window, he could barely hear the sounds of the party below.

"This is too much," Percy said as he looked around in shock "Why didn't you guys take this room?"

"Because Piper has her own room. Just don't complain Grandpa okay she wanted you to be comfortable."

Percy sighed "How's Annabeth holding up?"

"A bit stumbly actually."

"What?"

"PERCY! HEY PERCY ARE YOU IN HERE?! IT'S LEO! I MADE YOU A GUN BRO!" a voice rang through the house.

He sighed again "I'LL BE RIGHT DOWN!"

"IT'S LEO!"

"I KNOW."

"VALDEZ"

"YEAH I GOT IT LEO!"

He turned to Jason who seemed to be searching his pants for his gun again "Do you guys have food at least?"

"Fried chicken, pizza, some candy."

"The candy is alcoholic."

"You bet your straight edge ass it is."

Outside Percy entered the land of the drunk and disorderly. Leo was handing out water guns of various sizes and leading "battles" most of which ended with people falling on the ground. Chris Rodriguez and his rather intimidating girlfriend Clarisse were sitting behind a wooden bar handing drinks to people and trying to entice as many as possible by starting "chug, chug, chug" chants. The Stoll brothers were keeping track of a beer pong tournament on a big dry erase board. The two teams currently playing were named "We're here to fuck shit up" and the "Ass Wizards". Annabeth's friend Hazel and her boyfriend Frank were sitting by a fire in what appeared to be the calmest section of the party. Jason led Percy over to a group of picnic tables where the music was loudest. Thalia was screaming something about being a "flip cup god" and playing some serious air guitar. Piper launched herself at him and drunkenly told him what a wonderful friend he was, he hugged her briefly and then passed her off to Jason. His eyes darted around searching for Annabeth. She was probably going crazy and he suddenly felt really bad about getting there so late.

"Where's Annabeth?" he asked Piper and Jason.

"She and Reyna went blackberry picking." Piper said with a giggle "Do you love her Percy?"

"What do you mean blackberry picking? It's March Piper there are no blackberries."

"Blackberries for the Sangria!"

"Jason please tell me Annabeth isn't wandering around the woods in the dark."

"I was with you the whole time dude!"

"Thalia!" he had to wave his arms in front of her to get her attention.

"Wuddup Cuz."

"Where's Annabeth?"

"Cool your jets Buzzkill she'll be right back, they went to find wine."

"In the woods?!"

"No, in the house! Just sit down and relax . You've been here five minutes and already you're nagging everyone."

Percy sat down at the table and watched his cousin continue her air guitar solo. He worried about Annabeth until she emerged from the crowd arm in arm with Reyna. They each had a bottle in their hand and seemed to be kicking a third one in front of them. Percy jumped up and grabbed it before Piper tripped over it.

"Percy is here!" Annabeth said cheerfully. Her face was flushed and her eyes were glazed over.

"Hey," he said cautiously "are you drunk?"

She smiled at him "I'm not drunk. They're all drunk but I'm not drunk. Reyna is , I'm not."

"You look like you might be."

"Everyone might be! Who's to say?" she stumbled forward and Percy guided her over to the picnic table.

"Annabeth_"

"Leave her alone Percy, she's old enough to take care of herself." Thalia said as she threw herself into the seat next to her.

He narrowed his eyes "You feel okay Annabeth?"

"She got all the throw up up." Reyna said causally.

"You got sick?"

"Percy, look at me I am fine. It's a party , you are not happy and I wish you would be." She reached over to take a swig from the wine bottle Reyna was holding and Percy intercepted her hand.

"Alright Champ, let's slow it down for a bit." He tried to smile at her "you don't want to out drink everyone so early."

"How was the swimming thing?" Thalia asked.

He kept up small talk with everyone for about an hour or so, all the while keeping an eye on Annabeth who just seemed really giggly. Eventually Leo came over and congratulated him for being a "handsome dude". He sat down for about five minutes and slurred through some story about Thor before following Reyna into the house to get something to eat. Thalia and Jason had an arm-wrestling match which escalated pretty quickly into an actual UFC style brawl that Piper put a stop to with a pitcher of water from the beer pong table. They both stood up sopping wet and laughing. Piper cried and apologized. Percy never left the table and slowly, as inconspicuously as possible , made his way over to Annabeth's side. He was content to let her drink and laugh and talk with everyone else until she laughed so hard at Frank's story about getting his finger stuck in Chinese handcuffs that she fell backwards off of the bench.

"But he is Chinese!" she was yelling on the ground as Percy jumped up to examine her.

"Jesus Annabeth are you alright?"

"I'm okay!"

"I think it might just be time for you to call it a night." He grabbed her under the arms and pulled her gently to her feet.

"I can't," she said "everything is spinning."

"Come on, you should lie down."

Annabeth held onto his arm and smiled.

"Percy you're not seriously going to_"

"Shut up Thalia." He looked at her with a face that was so serious even drunk Thalia knew not to argue.

The walk into the house took almost twenty minutes. Every couple of feet someone was stopping them to say hi or get them to do a shot. Twice Annabeth wanted him to stop and dance. He kept her moving by promising that her head would stop hurting as soon as she laid down. She was able to guide him to the room on the second floor that she was sharing with Reyna, unfortunately it was already occupied.

"There's a sock on the door knob."

"I see it."

"That means sex right?" she asked loudly.

"Shh. Come on." He felt his shoulders start to ache as he pulled Annabeth along back towards the staircase. She would have to wait in his room until Reyna finished …whatever she was doing.

"I think it's Leo." Annabeth said.

"Leo? No he's got some girl he's in love with over in Europe or something."

"No, he likes Reyna I can tell."

"Doesn't Reyna like Jason?"

"Reyna had a crush on Jason, she also had a crush on you." Annabeth laughed.

"Yeah, I had a feeling."

"Why didn't you like her back?"

"Come on Annabeth."

"You used to tell me everything, everything in the world. At camp you would never shut up. I knew everything about you. Not anymore."

"Let's not talk about this right now. You're drunk and I'm exhausted_"

"And Reyna is having sex in my room!"

"Right, and Reyna is having sex in your room. You'll just have to stay with me until she finishes."

"In the mega room?"

Annabeth was absolutely amazed when they finally reached Percy's room, at least until she was close enough to the bed to collapse onto it. Percy was barely able to convince her to take her jacket off before her eyes started to close. He paced the room for a second, contemplating what he could do. Sure Annabeth could just stay with him, he didn't care. They had slept in the same bed before and it was no big deal, but that morning they had woken up to an empty apartment not a house filled with their friends. If Annabeth stayed in his room neither would hear the end of it. On the other hand who knew what the hell was going on in Reyna's room and if he just sent Annabeth back out to the party with Thalia she'd be puking within the hour. He sighed to himself and glanced over at his friend. Despite her intoxication, he could see the small worry lines on her face, as if she hadn't slept properly in weeks. She was probably as emotionally exhausted ads he was physically.

"Percy, I don't want to throw up anymore." She said, sitting up and looking at him with a frown.

"Do you feel sick?"

"I don't know. I feel like shit."

"You've never been drunk before have you?"

"Shut up , I'm not even drunk."

He laughed and sat down on the bed next to her.

"I just want to go to bed, why couldn't they do it in Leo's room."

"It might not be Leo."

"It is Leo." She was starting to sound irritated.

"Look just lay down for a minute. I'm going to get a shower and then I'll go down and see if Reyna's…you know finished…..if she's not you can just stay here. I've got plenty of room."

Annabeth didn't say anything, but she laid back on the bed with a groan.

He grabbed sweat pants and a T-shirt from his gym bag and walked into the giant bathroom that was attached to his giant room. He had grabbed a quick shower in the locker room before he and Beckendorf had left but the prospect of sharing his bed made him realize that he probably still smelled a bit like a sweat sock. It would also give Annabeth time to sober up and Reyna time to wrap it up. This night was a bad idea just like he knew it would be. Annabeth wasn't a drinker. Whoever thought it would be a good idea to let her gulp down an entire bottle of wine was an idiot. That idiot was most likely Thalia. Physical exhaustion, frustration, and the fact that Annabeth was only a few feet away kept Percy from taking a long musical shower. He used some soap that smelled like a Christmas tree and quickly turned the water off.

When he walked back into the bedroom Annabeth hadn't moved. He thought it would be a good idea to place a trashcan next to her side of the bed before he left the room. Quickly jogging down the stairs he noticed through the windows that the party hadn't calmed down much in the hour or so he had been away. He glanced down the hallway on the second floor and saw that the sock hadn't been removed either. On the off chance that it was actually Leo in there with Reyna , Percy decided that he wouldn't bang on the door. It was never okay to cock-block a friend. Instead he made his way down to the kitchen on the ground floor, where he pulled two water bottles from the fridge.

"Perce! Where have you been? Where's Annabeth?"

Percy turned and saw Thalia beaming at him. Suddenly he felt very angry.

"Why would you let her get that drunk?" he asked with narrowed eyes "are you fucking stupid or do you just not care_"

"Don't start being all dramatic Mr. Superhero. Annabeth had fun_"

"She doesn't drink Thalia! She could never keep up with you guys! She'll feel like shit tomorrow!"

"She's felt like shit for weeks Percy, she actually had a good time tonight. Maybe if you pull the stick out of your fucking ass and stop trying to be everyone's mother you could actually see that!"

"You know what I see? Once again Thalia Grace is too worried about fun to remember that bad things happen when people drink too much."

Thalia's face paled a bit "I'm not going to argue with you about this." She said "honestly I'm not drunk enough to deal with your emotional bullshit. Annabeth was perfectly safe. I may have been encouraging her to have fun but I wasn't going to let her go overboard and I certainly wasn't going to let her drive anywhere!"

He slammed the refrigerator door and walked back towards the stairs "Reyna's got someone in their room so she's staying with me." He said shortly.

Thalia smiled "Oh, that's convenient."

"Don't start."

"Mr. Superhero always gets the girl."

"It's not like that. You know it's not like that. Annabeth and I are finally starting to be friends again, don't ruin it."

"Percy, you'd better not do anything stupid she's going through enough_"

"Are you serious right now?" he said angrily.

"I'm just saying_"

"Don't, okay just don't. I'm way too fucking tired to be having serious conversations with drunk people."

"Alright then Captain America, you have yourself a fantastic fucking night."

She glared at him one more time before stomping out the back door.

Percy stormed up the stairs, thinking about all the horrible things he could say to Thalia tomorrow while she was nursing a hangover. She always did shit like this. The party always took precedence over everything else. He knew it did, because he used to feel the same way. In high school the only thing that mattered was having fun. It never occurred to any of his friends that someone could drink so much they'd have to get their stomach pumped or that someone would try to drive themselves home and wrap the car around a telephone pole…until it happened. Sure he probably over reacted, he did that a lot, but Thalia never seemed to get it. Now poor Annabeth would have to suffer through a hangover the next morning, hopefully she wasn't throwing up all over the place now.

When he opened the door to his room, he found that Annabeth had tucked herself into the bed. The trashcan was tipped over on its side, although it seemed to be empty, and Annabeth's jeans and socks were laying on the floor. Her JEANS were on the floor. She had no pants on. He was supposed to sleep next to her with no pants on? No, no the room was huge. He could sleep on the floor, or the strange miniature couch in the corner, or maybe even the Jacuzzi tub.

"Percy, it's freezing." Annabeth said, her voice muffled by the blankets.

"Well…you took your pants off so_"

"Can't sleep in jeans."

He sighed. The room was starting to get cold. There was a big fireplace , but the basket next to it only held a couple of small pieces of firewood. He could probably get one going, but it wouldn't last all night. It figures that this mansion would have five Jacuzzi tubs and Satellite TV but it was just rustic enough to not have heat. So even though his shoulders were aching, his head was starting to hurt, and half of his mind was still trying to process the fact that Annabeth wasn't wearing pants , he spent about fifteen minutes trying to get a little pathetic fire started. He had no idea what to do when he'd finished.

"Can we go to sleep now?" Annabeth whined.

"Uh_ actually I'll sleep_"

"Don't do it Percy. Don't even fucking think about sleeping anywhere other than this bed. Piper saved it for you because you're tired."

"I know but Annabeth…your pants."

"It's a huge bed I won't even touch you. Swear."

He sighed.

"Percy I feel like shit please just turn out the light so we can sleep."

All he wanted to do was sleep. All he wanted to do for hours was sleep . It was just Annabeth. She was drunk and he was exhausted. They would both pass out in no time. It was no big deal. So he turned the lights out and climbed into the opposite side of the bed. Recounting in his head all of the reps he had done in the gym so he wouldn't be able to think about anything else.

"Percy," Annabeth whispered through the darkness "I'm sorry I drank."

"You don't need to apologize to me Annabeth."

He flinched as he heard to unmistakable sounds of her turning towards him and probably moving closer "Thalia told me why you don't drink anymore. She told me about your cousin Bianca."

He tensed. "Did she?"

"She said it was your party, and you didn't notice her leaving so you've always blamed yourself."

He didn't say anything.

"It's horrible that she died and I think Thalia is wrong to get pissed at you for still feeling bad about it, but …..Percy it can't be your fault."

"Annabeth let's not_"

"You're a good person Percy. I know you'll always feel guilty but you didn't put the keys in her hand."

"No but I put a few beers in her hand." His voice came out much angrier than he intended.

"You're mad."

"No, I'm not."

"You never told me about it so…I wanted you to know that I knew."

"I never told you about it because…I don't like to talk about it. It's nothing personal. We're doing better at the talking thing I think."

She was quiet for a second "I think so too."

"Percy" she asked again a minute or so later.

"Yeah?"

"If I tell you something, do you promise not to treat me like I'm about to break into a million pieces?"

He sat up a bit. His eyes had adjusted to the darkness so he could just make out her shape about an arm's length away from him "Annabeth," he said "you're drunk. I don't want you to tell me anything you wouldn't tell me if you were sober." He was sure that whatever she wanted to tell him was the big mysterious thing that had been making her so miserable.

"I've wanted to tell you for a long time. I need to tell you now."

"Annabeth_"

"Just promise me that nothing changes."

"Of course, I promise." Without a second thought he rolled over onto his side so that he would be facing her. All of the fatigue he had been feeling had , for the moment, disappeared.

"My dad is dying." She whispered it so quietly he barely heard.

His first instinct was to hug her, or to tell her he was sorry and that everything was going to be okay_ but he knew that wasn't what she wanted.

"How?" he simply said.

"Cancer. Originated in the lung, progressed to his brain. Stage four. We found out about five months ago, they gave him 3 to 4 to live."

"What about treatment?"

"They've been trying. Nothing worked. Tumors kept growing. He still wants to try though."

"Does your mom know?"

"I told her. She's over in some country doing some anthropological bullshit she said she'd call when she could. Haven't heard from her in three weeks."

"Your dad still lives in Virginia?"

"Yeah, my step mom is taking care of him. I wanted to take a semester off but…he didn't want me too. He wants to see me graduate."

"Right."

"I want him to know I got into graduate school before he leaves."

"Yeah."

"But I'm horrible for not being there."

"No , you're not."

"Every time I talk to him he's less and less himself. I should be there."

"He wants you to be here."

"It's not fair, I'm not ready to lose him. We just started getting along. It's not supposed to happen like this."

"You're right. It's not."

"I don't know what to do. Ever. I'm so tired and scared and angry. And now I'm drunk which is worse and I threw up in front of everyone." Her voice started to sound a little thick, he couldn't tell if she was crying. "I wanted to tell you about it, because you knew something was wrong but we just started to be friends again I didn't want to put that on you. I didn't want to show up at your apartment again…crying and looking like an idiot."

"Annabeth_"

"I can't pretend like it isn't happening anymore. He can't speak the way that he used to, he can barely walk. I'm losing him and I'm not even there."

"Listen, I'm going to hug you." Percy said "You don't have to hug back, mostly it's for my benefit. Is that alright?"

He felt her nod and closed the gap between them. "I don't want to talk about sad things anymore." She mumbled.

The fact that she wasn't wearing pants didn't matter anymore. All he wanted was to prove to her that she had done the right thing by telling him. He wanted her to remember how close they used to be. She had helped him so much through his parent's divorce and his mother's remarriage. Those things seemed to pale in comparison to this, but he wanted her to know that he was there. So he wrapped his arms around her and she laid her head on his chest. They stayed like that much longer than two people who were simply hugging would, but that didn't matter. If he could manage to keep the sadness away, even just for a little while, then sore shoulder or not he would stay like that all night.

"I think we're cuddling again." She finally said.

He laughed a little and was relieved to hear her laugh too "Funny how that keeps happening." He said.

"Teenage Annabeth would have been pretty happy."

"Teenage Percy would have been really smug."

She laughed and sat up so that they were almost eye to eye "You have no idea do you?"

"No idea about what?"

"All of the things teenage Annabeth had planned."

"What do you mean?" he backed away from her again. This conversation had the potential to go in a direction that would make him really aware of her lack of pants.

"That last summer."

"Yeah?"

"Everyone was making fun of me, for being a seventeen year old virgin. I wanted to wait until I was in love so I thought 'hey if it has to be with anybody it should be with Percy' I was dumb. I planned this whole thing with the boathouse and fancy underwear, the sexiest thing a clueless seventeen year old virgin could think of you know? It was pretty pathetic looking back now. I had it all planned out but then you_ well you know."

"Rachel." He said. He was a bit in shock. She was telling him all of this so casually that he almost didn't believe she was telling the truth. If he would have known that back then….

"Is that who you…"

He realized what she was asking a nodded "Yeah."

"I figured."

He felt his face heat up "What about you," he asked cautiously, "did you ever...uh…I mean"

"Yeah. His name was Phil Willoughby. He was my senior prom date. He was a jerk. I always regretted it, and he ripped my prom dress."

Percy scrunched his eyebrows and frowned "Is it strange that I kind of hate this Phil Willoughby guy?"

_This is not the conversation to be having with your drunk, pantsless childhood friend you idiot. _

"No. It was an expensive dress. I hate him too."

He laughed "I don't know if that's the reason."

"It was meant to be with you." She said it with such certainty that his heart actually started beating faster "things just got messed up."

"Yeah." He agreed.

Suddenly she groaned loudly "I probably shouldn't have told you that….I never told anyone that. I just feel better when I talk and I don't know if lots of drunk people do that but_"

"Annabeth it's alright. Look the truth is….back then…."

_DO NOT HAVE THIS CONVERSATION WITH HER WHEN SHE IS DRUNK AND PANTSLESS!_

"back then I thought about you the same way…a lot."

"Really?"

"Yeah. I guess I wish it had been me, because then no matter how much we grew apart I would have always meant something to you."

_YOU ARE AN IDIOT. YOU ARE SUCH A FUCKING IDIOT. HOW DO YOU THINK THIS IS GOING TO FEEL TOMORROW WHEN SHE DOESN'T REMEMBER ANY OF IT!_

"You'll always mean something to me Percy."

He laughed "Yeah, maybe."

She was silent for a minute and then she took a really deep breath "Percy you know how you said…uh.."

"How I said what?"

"About first loves and Taylor Swift."

"What?"

"I think about you," she said quietly "when I hear a Taylor Swift song."

His heart pretty much just stopped "You um….what?"

She seemed more confident this time, almost sounding like sober Annabeth when she repeated "When I hear a Taylor Swift song, I think about you."

It was a feeling he couldn't describe, a mixture of chills and shock and the desire to smile as wide as his face would let him. He knew this was one of the stupid things Thalia had warned him not to do, in fact his conscience had been screaming at him to shut up the last twenty minutes but the truth of the matter was that Percy had spent an incalculable amount of time thinking about Annabeth Chase since he was twelve. Yes she was drunk and sad and pantsless and yes he was half asleep and exhausted and characteristically impulsive but this was an opportunity that he would not and could not pass up.

"Don't laugh_" she started to say, but he kissed her.

He pulled her closer to him and kissed her for what he only intended to be a few seconds, however he realized that he couldn't just pull away. She was kissing him back. They were kissing and it was so much different than any other kiss he had experienced. It should have been terrible…it was dark and they were both uncoordinated…but it wasn't. It was incredible, so incredible that Percy's overactive conscience was actually silenced. This was Annabeth Chase. He was kissing Annabeth Chase.

It wasn't until his hand slid down her hip and came in contact with bare skin that he actually had a mind enough to pull away. She was breathless and smiling. He was wondering how in the hell he was supposed to sleep after something like that. Her smile faded away and she hugged him again, laying across his chest like she had earlier. Before he could even think of what to say to her, she was asleep.

She would probably be embarrassed the next morning, if she remembered at all. He shouldn't have done that. Not that particular night. As incredible as that kiss was he would always wonder if it was genuine since she was in fact drunk and pantsless. He had promised her at the beginning of the conversation that nothing would change…he wasn't sure If that promise applied to the last bit, but for the sake of their rekindling friendship…it probably should. So the next morning, after falling into a dead sleep, Percy woke up just before Annabeth. He remembered everything and smiled down at her sleeping form in his arms. When she woke she looked almost startled. She glanced up at him and the worry in her eyes was over whelming. He didn't even want to ask her if she remembered. He simply zipped his fingers across his lips and threw away the key. She smiled.

To be continued...

Authors Note: Of course nothing in the Percy Jackson universe is mine. I was just inspired to give this a try. Review and let me know what you think!


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